Joakim Noah Illness: Updates on Bulls Star's Status and Return
Updates from Friday, Nov. 7
K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune has an update on Joakim Noah's status:
"With Joakim Noah back from missing two games to illness, the Chicago Bulls were ready to play at full strength for the first time this season Friday against the 76ers.
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Original Text
As if worrying whether Derrick Rose is at 100 percent isn't enough of a problem for the Chicago Bulls, Bulls star center Joakim Noah is dealing with an illness.
ESPN's Nick Friedell reports Noah will miss his second straight game on Wednesday:
SportsCenter reported on Tuesday that Noah would miss that night's game with an illness as well:
Noah has always been considered a valuable high-energy player to help out on the boards, but over the past two years, his true importance to the Bulls has been fully understood. In 2013-14, he averaged career highs in points (12.6) and rebounds (11.3). He also finished with the highest PER (20.0) of his career, according to Basketball-Reference.com.
He took home the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award as well—the first Bulls player to do so since Michael Jordan in 1987-88.
With Chicago failing to add a marquee free agent like Chris Bosh or Carmelo Anthony in the offseason, the team will likely rely on Noah even more as it tries to advance to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1998.
They added nice pieces in Doug McDermott, Pau Gasol and Nikola Mirotic, but none is the kind of impact star who takes the franchise to the next level. The Bulls are one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference, but with LeBron James and Kevin Love going to the Cleveland Cavaliers, they arguably remain the conference's second-best team.
As a result, head coach Tom Thibodeau will continue leaning heavily on the players who've been with the team for the past few years, like Noah, Taj Gibson, Derrick Rose and Jimmy Butler.
There are no indications that Noah's illness is serious so the Bulls have no reason to worry for now.
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